Nightly hand numbess isn’t (just) a sign of aging

Many people, especially representatives of older age groups, are familiar with the sensation of tingling, crawling and numbness in the hands, especially at night. However, this symptom can be observed at any age. The main and most common reason that your hands go numb at night is cervical osteochondrosis or the deposition of salts in the cervical spine.

This ailment occurs in 70% of the population over the age of 50, but the process begins after overcoming the 30-year boundary. Now you can often find osteochondrosis in adolescents. Among other causes of discomfort in the hands are heart and circulatory system diseases, atherosclerosis, atherothrombosis of vessels, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, polyarthritis of small joints, inflammation in the nerves themselves, and lack of vitamin B.

In the absence of any pathology, numbness in the hands can arise with a badly chosen pillow or non-physiological position of the body and holding hands above the head during sleep. Many people have a habit of sleeping with their hands thrown upwards or put under their heads.

All these positions make blood circulation in the upper extremities difficult. Unpleasant sensations can be very diverse in their localization. It is very rare to find numbness of the whole hand. More often some of its parts become numb. Let’s look at the most common cases:

#1. Cervical osteochondrosis, spondylosis, hernia or protrusion of the intervertebral discs of the cervical spine, especially when the pathological process is localized in the lower cervical segments.

#2. Carpal tunnel syndrome – compression of the nerves going to the hand, in a narrow channel formed by the bones of the wrist. It occurs with prolonged activity associated with the same type of loads (working at a computer, playing a musical instrument).

#3. Polyarthritis of small joints of the hand. It is characteristic of the presence of manifestations only in fingers.

#4. In the case of the pathology of the shoulder or elbow joints, symptoms will occur in the lower parts of the upper limb.

#6. In hypertensive disease, the dullness of the hands appears at night only because of an increased level of blood pressure.

#7. The numbness of the hands has a particular importance with heart diseases. Here you should pay attention what hand is numb. When there are unpleasant sensations in the right hand, there is a high probability of cervical osteochondrosis. If the left arm is numb, this can be a sign of serious heart problems, such as angina or heart attack.